
Andy Marshall's Genius Loci Digest: 29 Sep 2023
"Like a precious baubled ring, the carving becomes the clawed setting, the movement of light upon it the jewel."
This digest revels in the in-between, the transitional, the presence of absence. My camera with its dials and knobs and sharp focus has taken me into the blur of things. It has taught me that because things can't be measured it doesn't mean that it isn't there. The spirit of things, the essence of our places is as real as my shutter button.
"Like a precious baubled ring, the carving becomes the clawed setting, the movement of light upon it the jewel."
"The peeling paint, the muted colours and the rusting iron is no more. Here time’s cataract has been removed, and I’m seeing a building as the Victorians first saw it. "
Across a building extruded from the Triassic and Jurassic this isn't just a parable of faith, but also the story of the cosmos itself and our part in it.
I drive into the timeless landscape surrounding Hadrian's Wall. It's a unique place, defined by the ancient ribbon of limestone that runs through it.
I stand and watch the Kentish rag rise up from the dull nights refrain and prick out lines and glyphs that are older than the church itself.
This place goes deep into the psyche, deep into time and is deep into the ground.
If ever there is a testament to a work of art, it is when it makes our digital dystopia (and the devices associated with it) evaporate into the ether.
I'm heading out with a spring in my step and a heavy heart.
"I stand and wait and watch and, as the air is captured within the beams of sunlight, I start to see faces forming and dissipating in the haze."